Michelle Obama: ‘Every Voice Must Be Heard, Every Vote Must Be Counted’ [Exclusive]

Sometimes, it might seem like the battles for our rights and liberties are some distant memory – even something you’ve only read about in a textbook or seen in a documentary.

The Emancipation Proclamation was signed a century and a half ago. The marches and boycotts and lunch counter sit-ins of the civil rights era are 50 or 60 years behind us.

And today, there are no longer any separate water fountains, no more guards keeping any of our children from the schoolhouse door. That’s a sign of how far we’ve come – we live in a world with progress that our parents and grandparents would never have even dreamed of.